Man of Steel looks like money: Local man selling first Superman comic for millions

Man of Steel looks like money: Local man selling first Superman comic for millions

SEATTLE — Superman recently turned 75, and the superhero has never been more popular.

Now a Federal Way man is set to make millions off the Man of Steel. Darren Adams owns Pristine Comics. A few years back, he stumbled upon a copy of “Action Comics No. 1,” featuring the first appearance of Superman.

“I’ve been in business 28 years and you chase a lot of leads hoping to find something like this,” said Adams. “This is the needle in the haystack, because most books are not preserved with such quality.”

According to Adams, the original owner purchased the comic in 1938 and put it in a cedar box, a nearly perfect way to preserve it. A collector later bought it, and Adams later bought it from him, at a pretty price. But he always planned to sell it. He recently turned down an offer of $3 million, and instead has opted to put it up for bid on eBay.com beginning Thursday.

“Over 75 people from 24 countries have already applied for bidding,” said Adams. “Hopefully, you have one that wants it as bad as the other, and whoever’s pockets empty out first is where it stops.”

There are around 30 copies of the original “Action Comics.” Only Adams’ copy rates a 9 out of 10 in quality.

“It’s been humbling to own this book, and I can check this off of my bucket list when I sell it.

8 comments

I guess this guy missed the Action Comics #1 that was graded at 9.3 Universal and sold for $3.5M by Heritage Auction Comics 2 years ago.
This is not “the most valuable comic book in the world,” but close.

I have to disagree with you.
First off, there is no such thing as 9.3. And there is a census to verify the fact this is the highest copy.
Secondly, the most expensive comic Heritage sold was 1.1 mil for the 1st Batman.
Big reach out to John who is the reporter. You did a very nice job on this. Thank You !